Tour de France LIVE stage four: Fernando Gaviria wins sprint photo finish from Peter Sagan and Andre Greipel
The peloton returns to the road as one for a 195km route from La Baule to Sarzeau, via a jaunt into the heart of Brittany, setup for the sprinters
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Stage four offers another chance for sprinters like Mark Cavendish, Fernando Gaviria and Peter Sagan to shine while the general classification contenders like Chris Froome, Richie Porte and the rest will just be hoping to keep out of harm's way following the choas of the opening two stages.
After yesterday's stage-three team time trial, Greg van Avermaet is the man in the yellow jersey, the BMC rider who will aim to defend that status for as long as possible through the coming days, but will face plenty of challenges no doubt, not least from Team Sky and Geraint Thomas, their foremost rider in the overall standings.
Although today's 195km route from La Baule to Sarzeau via a jaunt into the heart of picturesque Brittany is a relatively flat one, the stage finishes on a slight uphill drag for around 2km which could take out the short-burst sprinters and will favour the riders who can sustain power for longer, like Michael Matthews and perhaps Marcel Kittel. Follow all the action with our live blog below:
Stage four profile
Route map
Prediction
There are all sort of riders who could win this type of stage, but the uphill drag to the finish makes us think Michael Matthews can pull off something special.
Odds
Fernando Gaviria 7/4
Dylan Groenewegen 4/1
Marcel Kittel 4/1
Peter Sagan 11/2
Arnaud Demare 15/2
How to watch on TV
Stage four will be shown live on ITV4 from 12pm, and on Eurosport from 11.45am.
1km to go
Into the final kilometre and the breakaway have been snaffled. Mark Cavendish is led into this finish by Dimension Data, with Kristoff there too, and Gaviria...
Fernando Gaviria wins stage four in photo finish!
A brilliant sprint on a wide road sees the big contenders spread out side by side. Gaviria, Greipel and Sagan are the trio there on the line and the Colombian wins his second stage on his debut Tour! An amazing few days for the 23-year-old.
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